Shopping through social media platforms, dubbed 'social commerce', is set to be worth $1.2 trillion (€1.06 trillion) by 2025, a new report by Accenture has found.
The current value of the global social commerce industry is $492 billion (€434.2 billion), however growth is expected to surge in the coming years, driven by Gen Z and Millennial social media users, who will account for 62% of global social commerce spend by 2025.
Accenture's report, Why Shopping’s Set for a Social Revolution, anticipates that for many consumers, the entire shopping experience, from product discovery to checkout, will take place on a social media platform.
Around two-thirds (64%) of social media users said that they made a social commerce purchase in the past year, which equates to around two billion purchasers around the world.
Social Media As An Entry Point
“The pandemic showed how much people use social platforms as the entry point for everything they do online — news, entertainment and communication,” commented Robin Murdoch, global software & platforms industry lead at Accenture.
“The steady rise in time spent on social media reflects how essential these platforms are in our daily life. They’re reshaping how people buy and sell, which provides platforms and brands with new opportunities for user experiences and revenue streams.”
The rise in social commerce is also likely to benefit individuals and smaller brands, with 59% of those currently buying products through social media saying they are more likely to support small and medium-sized businesses through these platforms.
In addition, close to two thirds (63%) said they are more likely to buy from the same seller again, showing the benefits of social commerce in building loyalty and driving repeat purchases.
Social Commerce By Sector
By 2025, the largest percentage of social commerce purchases globally is expected in the clothing sector (18%), followed by consumer electronics (13% and food and snack items (13%), however sales in the latter category are almost entirely exclusive to China.
In general, consumers in developing countries are more likely to use social commerce and do so often. For example, eight out of ten social media users in China use social commerce to make purchases for a given category, while the majority of social media users in the UK and US have yet to make a purchase via social commerce.
“Social commerce is a levelling force that is driven by the creativity, ingenuity and power of people. It empowers smaller brands and individuals and makes big brands reevaluate their relevance for a marketplace of millions of individuals,” said Oliver Wright, global consumer goods and services lead at Accenture. “Getting social commerce right will require creators, resellers and brands to bring their products and services where the consumer is, and will be, rather than the other way around.
"It means working together within a dynamic ecosystem of platforms, marketplaces, social media and influencers to share data, insights and capabilities to deliver the right incentives and best consumer experience across an integrated digital marketplace.”
Read More: Pandemic To Trigger A 'New Wave' Of Retail And Product Innovation, Accenture Study Finds
© 2022 European Supermarket Magazine. Article by Stephen Wynne-Jones. For more Technology news, click here. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
